The Wind-up Bird Chronicle By Haruki Murakami: Review

I must say, Wind-up Bird is a quirky affair. The only thing unsurprising about this book is that being a Murakami novel, I already knew what I might be getting into and I was prepared for it. A strange fact about this book is that you cannot explain the plot in short to anybody. While looking online for a synopsis before buying this book, I came across many inconsistent storylines. Some said the book is about a missing cat, or a missing wife, some said it was about a mysterious hotel. Well, after reading 607 pages of this book, I can say, none of them is entirely wrong. Welcome, everyone, welcome to the reality where I’m reviewing this book. As a tribute to the bizarre style of this book and questionable nature of the protagonist and actual events, I’m not going to follow my usual system of reviewing, instead I’ll just let it flow however it goes.

This is a funky, peculiar and weird book about naked women, lost animals and engulfing darkness. An endearing dog with the personality of a despicable human being but somehow becomes endearing when he’s a dog with massive testicles. This book is by no means is an easy read. There was violence in the most graphic sense explained to the point not only the characters wanted it to stop but the readers as well. And then the sexual encounters which were there to convey something not entirely sexual but displayed it in a rather erotic sense. And then the sexual events which I’m not sure were sexual or not. There were multiple moments in the book when certain people lick the face of somebody but why, no one knows. Whether that's some sort of fetish thing or was it related to some sort of hidden connection between things, we can only wonder.

As I mentioned earlier, the plot of the book is hard to explain like most Murakami novels and isn’t anywhere written in the most absolute sense. I had earlier decided to try to put it here in the most appropriate way possible but I have now decided otherwise. If the mystery surrounding the story is concealed that way then I will let it stay buried. The story is about a guy trying to find a missing cat. The cat comes back after a long time but without ageing a day, like it never went anywhere. But by this time, the protagonist’s wife has left him. Without a word or indication, she just left. He tries to find her in an imaginary hotel. On parallel, a soldier narrates his experiences through the Russian-Japanese conflicts during war days. There is a whole slew of other funky characters around- A psychic sister duo, a crazy teenager, a very handsome but taciturn man and many other fun characters coming up after every few chapters. The wind-up bird is much about symbolism and contrast amongst its own recurring characters and the similar experiences they undergo and how their different actions shape up very different realities for them. Similar animate and inanimate objects keep popping up in the series of events in different countries and time periods.

Murakami has given detailed descriptions of every little thing in this novel almost to the point where it seems like he’s got no interest in continuing the main story. It seems the author’s intention is to make the reader go round and round so much that they feel so engrossed with the perspective of the narrator to the point where they can experience his tractability and care less about the outcome of events and their anticipation matters much less than the strange events which led up to them. What is the mainstream story and what is a digression is a question the reader shouldn’t ask for their own good. One thing I noticed about this book was the protagonist’s obsession with noticing the appearance of people. Even almost till the very last page of the book, the man cannot keep himself from describing every single thing which was worn by everyone in any particular scene and then his opinion about it. For a character as passive as Toru Okada (the main character), if things had not been happening at the course as they did, he couldn’t have done anything at all. In his own words, he tries his best to avoid public or experiences which require an act of will. As in contrast, the characters very much mirror each other too. In a certain case, two very important characters, look exactly the same beneath the neck. And they both become sexual interests of Toru Okada. Toru Okada is particularly notable for having no notable quality. Had he been a food, he’d be cheese. If he was a music genre, he’d be elevator music.

The book starts with much anticipation into the unknown but ends up giving something very visible and believable. I like this book because of how much it actually goes into the elements of fantastic surrealism, entering into a world full of creatures rather creatively made up with characteristics beyond the bounds of rationality and yet at the same time makes it all seem tiny in front of the reality of things. Maybe that’s what true surrealism is like; when you aren’t able to distinguish it from reality. And then the consequences incurred upon reality by those mystical events are very much palpable and comprehensible.

The true power of this book lies in its portrayal of each event leading into the next. It flows almost exactly like a well-made TV series. With cliff-hangers and cleverly thought out scenes, wild characters and colourful scenarios; it would be an utter waste of effort if the reader isn’t capable enough to imagine everything right in front of them. In this sense, again the book isn’t an easy read. If you cannot think about the music scores mentioned in the book or the historical events, then you feel like you’re missing out on part fun.
After a while, it becomes more and more unclear to the characters which is real and which is not but just then the readers become vividly aware of the fact from dreams sequences.

The novel is as much wrapped in mystery itself as the absolute darkness which engulfs the characters from time to time. From beginning till the end, it’s almost as if we never move from one place but get to observe widespread dimensions of fascinating far away places. Murakami rightly captured the essence of any epic yet personal adventure which takes us to places new and supernatural yet continuously being connected to the emotions of the characters involved. Nothing moves or changes unless there is a strong sentiment behind it. And on the other side, if there is a feeling of any sort regarding something then great big actions will happen almost by chance. Fate is as much a character in this story as any other. It’s presence is like a breeze in an open plain with no leaves to move; just the icy cool feeling touching your skin every once in a while and making you desire a more warmer outfit.

At the end, I'd like to say, that reading it was a total delight and the book is worth every inked page. If you want something quite unlike anything, this is your book.

Two of my favourite quotes from the book:-

“What we see before us is just one tiny part of the world. We get in the habit of thinking, this is the world, but that’s not true at all. The real world is a much darker and deeper place than this, and much of it is occupied by jellyfish and things.”

“Nothing so consumes a person as meaningless exertion”

"The author feels he writes only for himself and no one else"

-Anurag Singh

“You don’t need to be an actual celeb with millions of fans to feel like one.”

- the revered author himself 

"The author has changed his insta username to match one of the characters is really liked in the novel."